Dakar: Team USA stage four report

ROBBY GORDON HUMMER TEAM DOWN BUT NOT OUT
Stage four of the Dakar Rally from Er Rachidia to Quarzazate, in the
North African desert kingdom of Morocco, should have been Robby Gordon's
day to move his "Dakar" Hummer H3 from eighth overall into...

ROBBY GORDON HUMMER TEAM DOWN BUT NOT OUT

Stage four of the Dakar Rally from Er Rachidia to Quarzazate, in the
North African desert kingdom of Morocco, should have been Robby Gordon's
day to move his "Dakar" Hummer H3 from eighth overall into the top
five, but unexpected transmission problems have drastically slowed the
American team, dropping them some 3 hours and 51 minutes to the race's
new overall leader, the Spaniard, Carlos Sainz.

Gordon had placed a brilliant fifth overall on the previous day's Third
Stage, a difficult dust filled run, from the North African port of Nador
deep into the Moroccan desert to the finishing point at the town of Er
Rachidia. Gordon's run had raised his position in the overall scoring
from 14th to eighth overall. That very advantageous starting position
for this morning's stage from Er Rachidia to Quarzazate had given Gordon
and navigator Darren Skilton great confidence that they'd soon be
challenging the race leaders for the overall position, even though they
were eight minutes down on total time. "Yesterday we had the chance to
run head to head with Jean-Louis Schlesser (the eventual winner of Stage
3) in his specially built V8 powered desert racer," said Gordon, "and
our Hummer H3 performed flawlessly." The Frenchman, a long-time
competitor in the Saharan classic finished some 12 minutes ahead of
Gordon on total accumulated time but Gordon was unfazed by the seeming
deficit. "We proved yesterday that we had the combination of power and
handling to beat Schlesser, so today we simply have to make up the
time," said Gordon before the start.

Once this morning's race had begun, on the timed "Special" middle
stage of the Er Rachidia-Quarzaate trail, Gordon's Hummer quickly began
to demolish Schlesser's time advantage for the race. "He had a solid
12 minutes on us at the start and we were seven cars back with two
minutes spacing between us, so he had disappeared by the time we took to
the course. Our Hummer was doing really well and we'd gained almost
everything we'd lost when we began to realize that we had a serious
transmission problem. A drive flange finally failed, which killed any
chance of us taking the overall win."

Fortunately Gordon was able to signal another competitor, who relayed the
information of the problem to Gordon's crew, which was awaiting his
arrival in Quarzazate. Gordon and Skilton managed to keep the
transmission working sufficiently to limp along at a frustratingly slow
pace, but their tenacity paid off in that the two were able to cross the
finish line, even though it took them 7 hours and 44 minutes to get
there. The official finish for the stage will keep Gordon in the race,
provided he and his crew can get the Hummer back to Quarzazate and cross
the finish line of the Liasion stage in time to make the cut-off time to
be an official finisher, and be qualified to start tomorrow's Fifth
Stage from Quarzazate to Tan Tan on the Atlantic Coast of Morocco.
"There's little chance now for an overall win," said Gordon when
questioned about his chances, "but if we can repair the transmission in
time to start tomorrow, we can, and certainly will continue. This race
has just begun and there will be several more chances to win one of the
remaining Special Stages."